Mind & Money
by anneflys
Summary: It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single woman in possession of a college education must be in want of a "successful" career. However little known the feelings or views of such a woman may be on her first entering a university, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of parents and peers, that she is already considered as a lawyer, a businesswoman, or a doctor.
1. Chapter 1

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single woman in possession of a college education must be in want of a "successful" career.

However little known the feelings or views of such a woman may be on her first entering a university, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of parents and peers, that she is already considered as a lawyer, a businesswoman, or a doctor.

One day, Ian said, "Linda babe, did you heard that the recruiting schedule for business and law has finally been released?"

Linda replied that she had not.

"But it is,' said Ian, "Dennis just came and told me all about it babe."

Linda made no answer except to say, "Stop calling me babe. You know I hate it."

"But don't you want to know who's coming to recruitment week?" cried Ian impatiently.

"_You _really want to tell me, so I guess I'll have to hear it."

That is invitation enough to a guy like Ian.

"Well, babe, you should know, Dennis says that the Charles & Lee law firm recently came by on Monday to talk to the chancellor and they came to such a lovely agreement that it's been formalized that Charles & Lee will hold a weeklong networking event throughout recruitment week!"

"What is the law firm's ranking in America?"

"Number one of course."

"And how many people will it hire?"  
"Probably a lot if they're going to this extent to recruit! The number one law firm in America. It'll be so great for the girls!"

"How? Does this even affect them?"

"Linda….babe…," said Ian, "How can you be such a drag? You must know that I am thinking of them accepting a job offer from them."

"Is their goal simply to hire students with the best GPA's?

"Best GPA's! No way, how can you talk like that? However, it's obvious that they want to hire the smartest students, so you need to start introducing your connections to our girls so they can get a leg up over the others."

"I see no reason to do that. You can try and do so or you can use _your_ connections and recruit _yourself_, which might even be better, since you are as smart as any of them. Charles & Lee might want to hire you over anyone else."

"Babe, you flatter me. I do have my share of smarts, but I don't pretend to be a genius now. When a guy majors in computer science, he ought to give up thinking about his own GPA at that point."

"In such cases, those guys rarely have any GPA's to show off about."

"But, babe, you have to go and use that connection you have. Didn't you say that you had a friend at Charles & Lee?"

"That goes way beyond the duty of roommate and friend. I can assure you that."

"But they're your _close_ friends. Think about the money and status that one of them can gain. Even Jessica and Matthew are determined to do it, simply on that account. And I don't think the girls will get even an interview without those connections.

"You think way too much of me and my connections. If you want the money and status, you should go. They'll probably take you with your Computer Science background. And if it really concerns you, you can tell those connections that I give my hearty OK for them to and accept one of our girls. Although, I think out of all of them, Charlie is probably most likely to get the job."

"Why would you say that? Charlie is not that much smarter than the others; and I'm pretty sure she's not even half the people person that Ellen is. Or half as good at networking as Michelle is. But you're always thinking the best of _her_."

"They don't have much to distinguish them" replied Linda; "They're all just following whatever society dictates like everyone else; but Charlie has a bit more adventurous sense compared to the rest of society."

"Linda, how can you mock your own friends like that? Don't you think that you're not only hurting their feelings but also mine?"

"You misunderstand me Ian. I have a deep regard for your feelings. After all, I've dated them for a long time. I've heard you talk about them for four very emotional years."

"Ah, you just don't understand my feelings."

"But I hope you'll get over it and be more emotionally stable to see twenty number one law firms come to recruit at our university."

"It'll be no use to us if twenty do come since you refuse make use of your connections for even one of them."

"I promise you, _babe_, that if twenty actually do come, I will use all of my connections for each and every one of them."

Linda was such a quirky mixture of quickness, sarcastic humor, introversion, and wit that the experience of dating her for four years was not enough for her boyfriend to understand her character. _His _character was much less difficult to understand. He was a man of limited understanding, little perspective, and frequent mood swings. The purpose of his life was to become rich and successful and its solace was getting his friends to also become rich and successful.


	2. Chapter 2

Linda was among the first people who utilized her connections for her friends. She had always to intended to use them, but always assured her boyfriend that she wouldn't, even to the last moment. And till the evening after Linda had left to go on a coffee chat with one of Charles & Lee's lawyers, an old high school friend, he had no knowledge of her intentions. She then opened the conversation in the following manner. Observing Charlie employed in drafting yet another version of her resume, Linda suddenly told her,

"I hope Charles & Lee will like your resume, Charlie."

"We have no knowledge of _what _Charles & Lee will like," said Ian resentfully, "since no one has met and talked to any of their lawyers."

"But you forget Ian," said Charlie, "that we'll meet him on the first day of Recruitment Week, and that Dennis promised to introduce us to one of the recruiters, a friend of his friend's."

"I don't believe even for one second that Dennis would do such a thing. He has two very close brothers from his fraternity who are pre-law and is a selfish, hypocritical douche. I think he's worthless."

"I agree," said Linda "and I'm glad that you're not depending on him for this."

Ian stayed irritably silent but unable to stay still; he started yelling at Katie.

"Stop coughing like that Katie, Jesus! Don't you understand my feelings right now? You're not letting them settle down!"

"Katie isn't coughing on purpose," said Linda "she just had a little bad timing with them."

"I don't cough for fun you know," replied Katie.

"When is your next recruitment event Charlie?"

"In about two weeks."

"Augh, it is," moaned Ian "and Dennis won't come back from his vacation to Prague until the day before, so it's impossible for him to introduce his connection since he wouldn't have had the opportunity to meet him yet."

"Then Ian, you can be the upper hand here and introduce my friend Fred Lee, a corporate lawyer at Charles & Lee, to him."

"Stop being so impossible Linda, how can I introduce him if I don't even know him? You're always messing with my feelings."

"I think you're being perfectly intelligent here. Two weeks really is a small amount of time for you to really _know_ someone. However, if you don't decide to introduce to him, someone else will steal the connection away. And you don't want Dennis and his two fraternity brothers to do that. They'll probably see it as an act of kindness if you introduce Fred to them; but if you don't want to do it, I'll do the introductions myself."

Linda's roommates stared at her and Ian just said, "Nonsense, nonsense!"

"What do you mean by nonsense?" exclaimed Linda. "Do you think that the subtle arts of networking and the importance of it are nonsense? I'm not sure if I agree with you here. Meredith, what do you think? You're majoring in philosophy on top of your theatre arts minor. You like thinking and creating lots of deep introspections."

Meredith wanted to say something that would sound both intellectual and deep, but she didn't really know how.

"While Meredith plans her introspection," Linda continued, "let's go back to Charles & Lee."

"I'm so sick of this conversation and Charles & Lee," yelled her boyfriend.

"I'm sorry to hear that. Why didn't you tell me that before? If I knew that several hours ago, I wouldn't have gone on a coffee chat with him. I'm sorry, but since I've talked to him and told him about the girls, we can't really escape meeting him."

The surprise and glee of Linda's roommates was exactly what Linda had wanted with Ian's being the largest. But when the first round of excitement was over, Ian declared that he knew that it would happen from the start.

"That was so nice of you Linda! I know I would be able to persuade you. I was pretty sure that your friendship with the girls was way too strong for you not to use your connections. Well, I'm content. And it was such a funny joke too, that you went to go talk with him just now, without a word to any of us."

"Now, Katie, you can cough as much as you want," said Linda, while leaving the room, tired of her boyfriend's declarations.

"She's the bestest of friends you guys have ever had," said Ian, when the door was closed. "I don't know how you're ever going to make it up to him, or me for that matter. It's not super appealing you know, to network now, especially when we have grad school and the GMAT's coming for us. But for our friends, we'd do anything! Michelle, though you're a freshman, I think that Fred might talk with you at the Recruitment Event."

"Pssh!" said Michelle, "I'm not worried; even though I'm the youngest, I have the most Twitter follows out of us all!"

The rest of the evening was spent deciding how soon Fred would invite them all for a networking dinner and deciding what questions they should ask him.


	3. Chapter 3

However, no matter how Ian and Linda's five other roommates tried, Linda would not provide them with any description of Fred Lee's interests, personality, or tastes. They tried various ways: from direct questions, guesses out loud, and various suggestions. Linda, however, was able to elude it all and they decided to go ask Jessica and Matthew, both of whom had also gained first hand connections with Fred Lee. Jessica was all in all very happy with the potential recruiter for Charles & Lee. He was a recent graduate, great GPA, and very friendly. Furthermore, he intended to go to Recruitment Week with a large number of coworkers. This was great! To be bringing a lot of coworkers to network with was a huge sign that Charles & Lee would be trying to hire lots of students here and the hopes of the girls rose.

"If I could see even one of our friends happily employed at Charles & Lee," said Ian to his girlfriend, "and all the others equally well paid, I'll be very happy."

In a few days, Fred returned Linda's visit and talked with her for about ten minutes in her room. He had hoped to meet her roommates, of whose intelligence he had heard a lot about. However, he only saw Linda. The girls were luckier as they saw him pass by in his Audi while walking back to their apartment.

An invitation to eat dinner was later emailed, and Ian had already made a reservation to do credit to his restaurant tastes, but Fred sent back an answer that made it all moot. Fred would have to go out of town the next day and was unable to come. Ian was very dissatisfied and couldn't understand why he had to leave so soon after his arrival here. He began to fear that he might not even be able to come to Recruitment Week because he was so busy. However, Matthew calmed his fears a bit by suggesting that Fred had only gone to a rival university just to help set up recruiting there and a rumor later followed that Fred was going to be bringing 32 seniors and 25 juniors from the university to do a joint recruitment event at the girls' own university. The girls soon worried about such a large number of students they would have to compete with, but were comforted by the fact that instead of 57 students, he had brought only 12 people in all – 6 career counselors and 6 students. And when the group came into the hotel lobby for the first recruitment event, there were only six: Fred Lee, two counselors, two assistants from his company, and another young man.

Fred Lee was friendly and smart; he had a pleasant manner of speaking, and an easy manner that put the students at ease immediately. The two counselors he had brought were merely there to observe and see what could be employed at their own university. The two assistants were very intelligent women, but with an air of extreme arrogance. The young man, Fred Lee's friend William Blake soon drew the attention of everyone in the room due to the rumors that became general knowledge in about five minutes after he came; that his firm, Pemberley & Co., an investment banking firm, was hiring and had a copious amount of benefits, including a six figure entry salary. The students decided he had charisma and that his firm was so much worth recruiting for than Charles & Lee, until William was discovered to be exceedingly haughty and above recruiting at a public university and the company itself was found to have a horrible work life balance and a dog eat dog culture. Not all of the six-figure salary at Pemberley & Co. could have saved the company from being considered a most terrible place to work at and considered unworthy compared to the partner company of Charles & Lee by most people there.

Fred soon acquainted himself with most of the students in the room. He was lively and unreserved, accepted every resume thrown at him, and discussed the many merits of Charles & Lee with ease, such as the great work life balance, fully stocked kitchen, and the comfortable culture. Such amiable qualities must speak for themselves. What a contrast between Charles & Lee and its partner! William only spoke with the two students from the rival private university, declined being introduced to any other student, and spent the rest of the evening in walking about the room, speaking only of the competitiveness, the difficult interview process, and the strict work performance review at hi company. The company and his own character were decided. They were both the most arrogant and disagreeable recruiters that ever were and everybody hoped he and his company would never come here again. Amongst those most against him was Ian, whose dislike of the company's general culture was sharpened into particular resentment by William having insulted one of his own friends.

Because of the lack of recruiters, Charlie had to sit down alone for thirty minutes, and during part of that time, William had been standing near enough for her to hear the conversation between him and his friend Fred, who came from a conversation for a few minutes to press his friend to join in.

"Come on Will," said he, "You have to talk with someone. I hate seeing you just standing around by yourself in this stupid way. You'd much better start talking."

"I think not. You know how I hate it, unless I actually know the person I'm talking to. And in such a group of people as this, it would be ridiculous. Your assistants are talking with someone right now and there is no other student in this entire room that I absolutely need to talk with."

"I wouldn't be so picky as you are," said Fred, "I promise you, I've never met with so many intelligent and friendly students in my life as I have this evening; and there are several of them I think would be qualified for us to hire."

"_You_ are talking with the only student that seems intelligent and not pathetically sucking up to you," said William, glancing at Ellen. "She has a 4.0 GPA, if I remember."

"Oh! She is _definitely_ very smart and one of the most delightful people I've ever enjoyed speaking with at these networking events! But one of her friends is sitting down right behind you, who I've heard is almost equally smart in academics, and I'm sure just as agreeable to speak with. Let me ask Ellen to introduce her to you."

"Who do you mean?" and turning around, he glanced for a moment at Charlie, and upon catching her eye, he withdrew his own and coldly said, "I remember she has a decent GPA, but she's not qualified enough to tempt _me_. I'm in no mood right now to direct my attention to students who have been slighted by the other recruiters. It's probably better that you return to your student and enjoy her conversations. You're just wasting your time with me."

Fred followed his advice, William walked off, and Charlie had no pleasant feelings towards William and his company. She did tell the story however, with great glee among her friends as she did have a witty, satirical character, which found great enjoyment in anything ridiculous.

The evening however, passed off well for the apartment mates. Ian heard that Ellen was talked of very well amongst the recruiters of Charles & Lee. Fred had talked with her the longest and she had been distinguished between all the students. Ellen was as happy as her friend was, but in a quieter way. Charlie felt her happiness. Meredith heard herself being mentioned to one of the two students Fred had brought as the girl with the greatest amount of extra-curricular activities out of everyone and Katie and Michelle were lucky enough to never had to stand around by themselves awkwardly, which was all that they had yet to learn to care for at a recruitment event. They returned, therefore, happily to their apartment. They found Linda still awake. Working on her research paper, she had lost track of time and tonight, she was very curious about the event which her friends had all looked forward to for the longest time. She had hoped that Ian's views on Fred and Charles & Lee would be disappointed but she soon heard a different story.

"Oh babe," she started as soon as she entered the room, "we had the best evening! It was a really good event. I wish you had come. Ellen was very well talked of. Everyone said that she was very poised and Fred thought that she was well qualified and came around to talk with her twice! Think about the implications babe! He actually came to speak with her twice! And she was the only student in the room he talked to a second time. First, he talked with Sam. I was so annoyed to see him talk with her first but he wasn't that impressed with her. No recruiter really can you know; and he later got introduced to Ellen. Next with Charlie and then afterwards—"

"If he really felt any sort of friendship towards me," cried Linda impatiently, "he wouldn't have talked so much! Jesus Christ, don't tell me any more about who he networked with. If only he had caught Mono and lost his voice."

"Oh babe, I like him and his company very much. Such a good salary! And the two assistants he brought were very delightful too! I've never seen such luxurious suits. I'm pretty sure that one of them was wearing Prada—"

Here, Linda interrupted him again. She didn't want to hear anything about brand names. Ian therefore had to find another conversation point and spoke instead, with a lot of bitterness and exaggeration, the extreme rudeness of William.

"But I promise you," he added, "Charlie doesn't really lose much by not being qualified enough for him and his _company_. He's a horrible man with a company that doesn't even let you take the time to spend the money you earn. So conceited! No one wanted to speak to him even. He sashayed here and there thinking that he was so great! Not qualified enough to speak with! I wish you'd been there babe, to give him one of your sarcastic insults. I really hate the guy."


	4. Chapter 4

When Ellen and Charlie were alone, the former, who'd been cautious about her interest for Charles & Lee before, expressed to her friend just how much she wanted to work there.

"The company's just what a law firm should be," said she, "lively, smart, provides good benefits; and I never saw a law firm with such an open culture! – So much ease with such perfect employees!"

"It also pays a handsome sum," replied Charlie, "which a company should do, if it can. I therefore, approve this company.

"I was very much flattered by Fred's coming by to talk to me again a second time. I didn't expect that."

"You didn't? I did. But I guess that's the major difference between us. You're always surprised when people compliment you like this and I'm never surprised. What could be more natural than Fred coming by to talk to you again? He couldn't help but see that you were about five times as smart as any other student in the room. No thanks to his good manners for that. Well, both Fred and the company is good, and I give you leave to apply there. You've applied for many other stupid places."

"Charlie!" exclaimed Ellen in reply.

"You're too eager to like everyone and everything, and career positions are not an exceptions. You never see a fault in anybody or anything. The entire world is good and agreeable in your eyes. I've never heard you gossip or badmouth someone behind their back in my entire life."

"I don't want to go around saying bad things about others, but I also believe that I always say what I think."

"I know you do, and that's why I'm even more confused by you. With your good sense, I just can't believe that you would be so blind to the faults and nonsense of others! A lot of people pretend to be nice by putting on a façade in society – you see it everywhere. But to be truly nice, without any kind of secret plan or design, to take all the good points of everyone and make it even better, and to never say anything about the bad points. That skill belongs only to you. And you like Fred's assistants too right? They weren't as kind and open as Fred was."

"This is true – at first. But they're actually really nice people when you speak with them. One of the assistants, Carol, is actually looking to find another position elsewhere, but I think that I will find a very kind and helpful coworker in Louise if I get accepted there."

Charlie listened in silence but wasn't convinced. Their behavior at the event hadn't been particularly attentive to the students and was not ones to be nice in general. With more observational skills, less patience in character than her friend, and a quicker sense of judgment not biased with regards towards herself, she wasn't as likely to like them. In reality, the two assistants _were_ qualified women for their position, not unable to be kind and pleasant people if they felt like it. But they were also arrogant and haughty. They were educated in one of the best private universities in the country, earned six figure salaries, and had gained their positions through connections rather than a fair interview. They were very used to talking only with people who were rich and successful and thought very well of themselves whilst looking down on others. Their parents were very successful corporate lawyers, something that was more present in their minds than the fact that their parents were now working as nonprofit lawyers.

Fred Lee was actually the successor to the second Lee of the Charles & Lee firm. The second Lee had always intended to create a nonprofit branch to the firm but did not live to do it. Fred intended to do so and sometimes involved himself in recruiting to begin the process. It was doubtful however, to those who knew the current playing ground of lawyers, whether there were any smart students left who wished to pursue nonprofit law.

His assistants were anxious for him to give up the venture, though he had only just started. Carol was very willing to "assist" Fred in his goals, by taking him to recruit at a university known for more mercenary law students. Louise, who took the position at the law firm merely for monetary reasons, was not as involved as her friend and simply followed Fred around wherever he went, as her job description prescribed.

Between Fred and William, there was a very close friendship, although there was such a sharp contrast in personality. William liked Fred for his ease, openness, and good temper even though his character was so very different. On the other side, Fred found strength in Will's judgment. William had more understanding and was savvier about the world. Fred was not lacking in any way but Will was definitely cleverer. He was also proud, introverted, and fastidious. Although he was kind, he was also not openly inviting about it. As a result, Fred had the advantage in the social scene; he was liked universally no matter where he went and William always offended people.

Even the way they spoke of the recruiting event was characteristic of each friend. Fred had never met with more pleasant people or smarter students in his life; everyone had very open and witty conversations with him. There was no formality or stiffness as he soon felt that they knew everyone in the room. As to Ellen, he didn't think that he had met a smarter or kinder person. Will, on the other hand, had only seen a bunch of students that had little intelligence and no with. He didn't feel even the smallest interest or pleasure from interacting with them. He did acknowledge that Ellen was smart, but she smiled too much.

Carol and Louise allowed him to say what he wanted—but they still agreed that they both liked Ellen. They decided she was a well-qualified potential applicant that they wouldn't object to meeting and getting to know more of. However, they gave Will permission to think of her as he wished.


	5. Chapter 5

Charlie and her roommates were particular friends with the inhabitants of an apartment just a short walk from their home: Jessica, Matthew, and Sam. Jessica was currently pursuing her graduate degree in public policy after amassing a small fortune at her stint at Wall Street. She had however, felt the stressful hours and tense culture too strongly. It gave him a sense of disgust towards business and to her high-rise apartment at New York and getting rid of it both, moved to the west coast to pursue other higher goals. She occupied herself solely with living a free and independent life. Her time at Wall Street had not made her mercenary. Instead, she was by nature, unselfish and giving, and her time had made her even less tied down to material goods.

Matthew was a nice and friendly environmental studies major and fiancé of Jessica. He was not too bright, making him a less than valuable friend to Ian. The third roommate, Sam, was a sensible and intelligent young woman, about twenty-seven and one of Charlie's closest friends.

After the recruitment event, it was absolutely necessary for all of them to gather and talk about the things that happened and it was that which brought Sam over to see Charlie and her friends.

"_You _began the evening well Sam," said Ian with civil self-command to her. "Fred spoke to you first."

"Yes, but he seemed to like his second better."

"Oh, you mean Ellen I suppose, since he _did _talk to her twice. That _did _seem to imply something—I believe so—I did hear something about it—but I'm not really sure—something about the dean."

"Do you mean what I overheard between the dean and Fred? I thought I mentioned it to you. The dean asked him how he liked the students at Meryton University and whether or not he thought there were a lot of smart students and which of them he thought the most qualified. And he answered immediately that Ellen was the most qualified."

"_Well!_ That does seem to make things pretty obvious. It does seem like—But well, it might not come to anything you know."

"The stuff _I _heard was more useful than _yours_, Charlie," said Sam. "William wasn't as worth listening to as much as his friend was he? Poor Charlie, to be just _decent enough_."

"Hey, don't put it into Charlie's head that she should be annoyed by his stupidity. He's such a horrible man that it would be a misfortune to be scouted out by his company. Dennis told me last night that he sat close to her for thirty minutes without even saying a word."

"Are you sure? Maybe you're mistaken," said Ellen. "I definitely saw William talking with her."

"Yeah—that's because she finally asked him how he liked the university and he couldn't help but answer her. But she said that he seemed very angry for being made to speak."

"Carol told me," said Ellen, "that he doesn't really speak much unless he's with people he knows. With _them_, he's perfectly friendly."

"I don't believe it. If he were so friendly, he would have talked with Dennis. They met before you know, at another function or other. But I bet I know why, everyone says he's so arrogant and he probably heard that Dennis didn't go to a great university for undergrad, and that he came to the event in a Toyota rather than a Ferrari or whatever."

"I don't care that he didn't talk to Dennis," said Sam, "but I do wish he had a conversation with Charlie."

"Maybe some other time Charlie," said Ian, "Although I wouldn't hold any kind of conversation with _him_ if I were you."

"I can promise you Ian, _never_ to speak with him."

"His pride," said Sam, "doesn't really bother me as much as pride often does because he does have an excuse for it. I mean he has everything going for him, from the Harvard education to the rich parents. He probably should think highly of himself and may even have a _right_ to be proud."

"That's true," replied Charlie, "and I would forgive _his _pride, if he hadn't insulted _mine_."

"Pride," lectured Meredith, who found great pride in her deep reflections, "is an exceptionally run-of-the-mill foible in society I believe. From the copious perusal of tomes I've done, I'm assured that it's very run-of-the-mill indeed. Human nature is particularly prone to it, and there exists very few people who don't cherish some feeling of self-complacency on some facet or other of their existence. Vanity and pride are vastly different though the two words are used synonymously. People may be prideful without being vain. Pride relates to the opinion of ourselves while vanity is what we desire others to think of us."

"If I were as rich as William," cried Sam's ten year old brother who had come to visit for the day, "I wouldn't care about how proud I was. I would have a hundred racecars and drink a bottle of wine a day."

"Then you would probably drink more than you should," said Ian, "and if I saw you drinking away, I would come and take away your bottle."

He protested that he would not and Ian continued to declare that he would, and the argument only ended with the visit.


End file.
